National Analysis of Differences Among Substance Abuse Treatment Outcomes: College Student and Nonstudent Emerging Adults

Objective: To discover differences between student and nonstudent substance abuse treatment demographics, treatment characteristics, and outcomes. Participants: Conducted February 2014, clients without prior treatment admissions, aged 18-24, not in methadone maintenance therapy, and in nonintensive and ambulatory intensive outpatient treatment settings (N = 467,233). Methods: Chi-square was used to analyze differences. Multivariate logistic regression including covariates and the student status predicted successful completion with risk differences (RD). Results: Students were more likely to successfully complete treatment than nonstudents (56.15% vs 41.96%; chi(2) = 1355.04, df = 1, p < .0001, RD = 14.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] [13.43, 14.95]), and students were 6.92 (95% CI [6.26, 7.58]) percentage points less likely than nonstudents to remain in treatment for longer than 4 months (chi(2) = 367.24, df = 1, p < .0001). Conclusions: Treatment providers seem to have greater results retaining students in shorter periods. Suggestions for higher education treatment engagement are discussed.